Improvements to water quality at south Wales beach will take time experts warn

Ted Peskett – Local democracy reporter

Environment experts have warned that there will not be a quick fix to the water quality problems at a popular beach in south Wales.

Beach-goers and local residents were disappointed to find out in January 2025 that Ogmore-by-Sea beach still had a ‘poor’ bathing water quality rating.

In the previous year, the beach and Watch House Bay in Barry were given ‘poor’ ratings following tests by Natural Resources Wales (NRW).

Watch House Bay is now classed as ‘sufficient’, and it is hoped Ogmore-by-Sea will “come good” eventually. However, NRW has cautioned that this will take some time.

Solution

An NRW spokesperson said investigative work at the beach is ongoing, adding: “It’s important to note that there will not be a quick solution due to the number of possible contributory factors to the poor water quality.

“In addition to our investigation work, we have prioritised our regulatory compliance work in the area and have also identified private drainage issues in the area which need to be rectified.”

Bathing water quality ratings at Welsh beaches are based on the levels of bacteria detected in samples taken there.

Ogmore-by-Sea beach is next to the River Ogmore and Pen-y-Bont wastewater treatment works is about a mile upstream.

Pressure

Storm overflows, which is when excess rainwater and wastewater is released into the sea or a river to relieve pressure on the water system, is known to affect water quality.

However, NRW has said in the past that there are other factors that could be affecting Ogmore-by-Sea beach like rural land use, dog faeces and large colonies of birds.

There is also the issue of missconnections, which is when houses are not properly connected to wastewater treatment works and wastewater ends up going directly into rivers.

The NRW spokesperson added: “We have started a sampling monitoring programme on the River Ogmore to try to highlight hot spots of poor water quality to focus our investigations.

“We are also developing a local project with the Welsh Government and other stakeholders to look at the reasons for water quality failure and how to prevent, reduce or eliminate the cause of pollution at poor bathing waters.”

Unacceptable

Bathing water sampling at Ogmore-by-Sea beach started again in May for the 2025 bathing season, which will end on September 30.

There will be no change in the classification of the bathing water quality there until all samples have been taken.

The latest sampling result for Ogmore-by-Sea, published on NRW’s webiste on May 29, 2025, indicated that the water quality was unacceptable.

At a Vale of Glamorgan Council scrutiny committee meeting in January, a ward councillor for St Bride’s Major said the community was “really upset” about the poor water quality rating.

Cllr Joanna Protheroe added: “The community council campaigned to get the bathing water status in the first place because we know that there have been issues, so the fact that we have a continuing poor water quality rating is not surprising, though very disappointing.

“I know that this isn’t something Welsh Water wants and it is certainly not something that NRW wants.”

At the same meeting NRW operations manager, David Letellier, said the overall picture of bathing water quality in Wales was a positive one and that Ogmore-by-Sea will eventually “come good”.

More than 70 beaches are currently classified as being ‘excellent’ for bathing water quality.

‘Poor’

The only other Welsh beach rated ‘poor’ for bathing water quality earlier this year was Rhyl.

Welsh Water has a programme of investments planned to try and improve water quality across the country.

This includes £1.1bn it plans to spend on improving storm overflows.

When asked about bathing water quality issues at Ogmore-by-Sea, a Welsh Water spokesperson said: “Our investigations are well under way, sampling started in May and will be taken through until September.

“We will use this data to carry out coastal modelling which will help direct any required investment to where it will be most valuable to improve the bathing water.”

Vale of Glamorgan Council said it will continue to discourage bathing at Ogmore-by-Sea beach until the ‘poor’ bathing water classification improves.